Shared Electric Mobility in Towns and Smaller Settlements (SEMiTaSS)

SEMiTaSS aims to research how electric vehicle (EV) sharing can become a successful sustainable mobility option in English towns and villages. Research shows that the potential of transport electrification to be sustainable, inclusive, and transformative is augmented if EVs are shared – and even more so in smaller settlements. Remote working and online shopping replace some trips, but do not necessarily reduce total car trips or mileage. Local public transport services have declined in frequency and reliability across rural areas, shrinking access for those unable to drive and enforcing car dependency on residents who are, on average, 10 years older than their urban counterparts. Shared electric mobility (SEM) services are concentrated in cities, so there is limited understanding of their possible success factors outside urban neighbourhoods. SEM could reduce car dependency, isolation, and transport carbon emissions in towns and villages, but there is little specific research into how to do this. SEMiTaSS proposes to analyse car clubs, bike loans and peer-to-peer SEM in English towns and villages to distinguish them and their use from city SEM, and assess their benefits, viability, and success within the community. SEMiTaSS will also investigate in-depth 3-4 rural SEM examples at different stages of development in the English counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Oxfordshire to understand how they can become widely used over time. The two main research objectives are as follows: Analyse SEM services in English towns and villages with populations of up to ~40,000; distinguish their adoption into everyday practices and the materials, skills and meanings of SEM policy, operation and use in these communities, benchmarking them against their urban counterparts. Understand how SEM practices emerge, evolve and become embedded at community level through in-depth engagement with those involved in existing and emerging SEM services and at least one co-produced, year-long trial. SEMiTaSS will apply social practice theories (SPT) to both identify quantitative indicators of viability and impact specific to smaller settlements, such as changes to multiple car ownership, and to qualitatively analyse established, recently introduced and future SEM examples in English towns and villages, where SEM users may also be local policymakers and providers of SEM. Using SPT builds on prior research into shared mobility, which will be subject to a scoping review. This and other academic outputs will benefit an international audience of transport and transition researchers by enriching the diverse and rapidly evolving knowledge base of changing environmental practices, norms, and success factors in relation to SEM and filling an identified gap in rural mobility research. SEMiTaSS will also bring together local government policymakers, SEM operators, and users, involving them directly in the research into how SEM becomes integrated into their communities and co-producing at least one SEM trial, and providing them with and helping them disseminate outputs to demonstrate the viability and success factors of SEM in town and village communities. This knowledge will benefit local authorities who have declared climate emergencies, shared mobility operators who can expand into new markets, and rural residents who want more sustainable and community-focused transport options and assets. The outputs will also be designed so that the direct beneficiaries can engage with the EV industry (building on the ZEV mandate), property developers and rural employers who can help them invest and scale the sharing service ecosystem in these rural communities.